Into the Grey
by impureevilregal
Summary: Emma feels trapped in a destiny that she can't control, until Regina reminds her that there are no guarantees. A swan queen oneshot.


**Prompt: Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars or any other. No one controls your destiny. -Gregory Maguire**

It seemed as if fate had struck again. Emma felt as if she was forever put into the position of both Savior and the universe's personal whipping girl. Between a book that seemed to control destinies and her own tendency to mess up anything she put her hands on, much less tried to fix, she was trapped against a wall that, whenever she tried to push at it, pushed back and knocked her down.

Which was why she was currently sitting on a bench at the docks, staring at the sea, as she had been for the past three hours without interlude, her mind drawing a blank on what exactly she could do to fix her latest mess. Which, seeing as she could barely sort out her own love life, much less the love polyhedron (if she counted her own secret crush on Regina) between the former evil queen, a thief who didn't know when it was okay to break the rules, and said thief's supposed-to-be-dead wife.

"Seems like there's going to be a storm, doesn't it, Miss Swan" said Regina's familiar voice, sending involuntary chills down Emma's spine.

Usually Emma would respond with a witty comment back at the other woman, but seeing as she had accidentally complicated Regina's love life in the first degree things were understandably tense between the two women at the moment. And, while she didn't think that Regina was going to go nuclear and destroy the entire town like her parents and Killian seemed to think she would, based only on the fact that she left the diner right away and hadn't been seen since, she supposed that she was obligated to check, so she cautiously asked "so...Should we be worried about Hurricane Regina coming through town?"

Regina thought about it for a second, as if she was deliberating whether or not she wanted to put in the effort to do exactly that, before saying "you're in luck, about two days ago I would have gleefully said yes and told you to find a good hiding place." It was stated as a plain fact, with no clear emotion in her words, which surprised Emma as, based on what she'd seen of the other woman, Regina wasn't one to hide what she was feeling. Not when she could put on some stilettos and throw fireballs at the offending party.

"Not that I'm complaining, because I'm actually quite happy about the lack of mayhem you've been causing, but why did you change your mind" Emma asked curiously, happy that her friend was moving on, but not understanding why she was moving on.

"Well, for one, I realized that my relationship with Robin was based, quite literally, off a handful of sparkly dust. Magically powerful dust that is well known for it's 100% accuracy. But, still sparkly dust. Without it we would never be together, friends, perhaps, but it would never have gotten that serious that fast. We were supposedly fated to be together, but fate apparently disagreed with it's own decision. Which is why I've decided to figure things out for myself from now on" Regina said with a smile.

"Regina...You said yourself that you couldn't change your destiny, and you aren't known for changing your mind about, well, anything" Emma said, more than a little confused about how okay with the situation Regina was.

"I suppose I did" Regina mused thoughtfully, before saying "I guess I'll just have to prove myself wrong then." She smiled when she said this, and, to Emma's surprise, she actually laughed. Regina, Emma decided, had a beautiful laugh, that she really should use more often. Which was when Emma had an idea that could potentially get her killed, though she quickly decided that it would be worth it.

"So, theoretically" Emma began, "if I were to do something completely unexpected that I really wanted to do, I should do it" Emma asked Regina, carefully gauging her response.

Regina thought about the question for a moment before saying " I suppose so, yes. Why do you ask? I doubt the savior needs permission to do anything."

Emma gathered up her courage before simply saying "this" and stepping forward, kissing Regina hard on the lips. And, to her surprise, Regina kissed her back, wrapping her arm around Emma and pulling her closer.

Emma smiled and Regina once more laughed her beautiful laugh. Maybe, Emma decided, just maybe, today could be the day that they both kicked destiny in the ass.

 ** _So, day two is complete. I admit, I'm not a big one for romance, so I don't know how good the kissing scene was, but I thought that it worked really well in the story. And, even if it sucked, at least neither one died in today's little ficlet, right?_**


End file.
